Addressing Child Maltreatment in New Zealand: Is Poverty Reduction Enough?

Jonathan Boston provides an insightful analysis of the emergence and persistence of child poverty in New Zealand (Boston, 2014, Educational Philosophy and Theory). His remarks on why child poverty matters are brief but, as he reports, “[t]here is a large and robust body of research on the harmful consequences of child poverty” (Boston 2014, pp. 10–11). One cost he does not explicitly mention is the increased risk of maltreatment faced by children living in poverty. Given the clear correlation between risk of abuse and poverty, Boston’s recommendations might be expected to go some way to addressing New Zealand’s appalling child maltreatment statistics. However, Boston himself identifies both fiscal and political barriers to the implementation of his proposed strategy. “Fundamentally”, he observes, “without adequate multi-party agreement, it will be hard to reduce child poverty on a durable basis” and “[c]urrently, such agreement is lacking” (Boston, 2014, p. 21). Even if we accept Boston’s strategies for child-poverty reduction, then, it is prudent to consider other responses to the consequences of child poverty. Significant and controversial aspects of New Zealand’s 2013 White Paper for Vulnerable Children can be read in this light, and one of them – the proposal to use predictive risk modeling (PRM) to identify children at risk of maltreatment – is the focus of this commentary.     

Issues and challenges raised by development agencies in implementing the new modalities of aid to education

Over the past decade there has been increasing concern with aid effectiveness, and, more generally, development effectiveness. New ways of delivering aid have been developed, including sector-wide approaches and direct budget support. This paper reports on the progress that has been made through some of these new modalities of aid to education, as perceived by some of the senior staff of a handful of the major development agencies. Where have these developments led us in the education sectors of many developing countries? What are the prospects for the ways in which aid is planned and delivered and in the relationships between donors and recipient governments? What are the main issues and challenges currently being raised and addressed? How have these changes affected the impact of the aid provided? These are some of the questions that are raised in this study, with answers provided by the agencies themselves.     

Child Poverty in New Zealand: Why it matters and how it can be reduced

Abstract

A combination of policy changes and wider socio-economic trends led to a dramatic increase in child poverty in New Zealand during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Higher rates of child poverty have now become embedded in the system and show little sign of resolving themselves. For a country which once took pride in being comparatively egalitarian and, more particularly, a great place to bring up children, the tolerance of much greater child poverty is surprising. It is also concerning. Child poverty imposes many costs. This is especially the case, according to the available evidence, when poverty occurs during early childhood and when it is severe and/or persistent. These costs afflict not only the children directly exposed to poverty (e.g. in the form of lower educational achievement, reduced lifetime earnings and poorer health outcomes), but also the whole society. This article briefly explores the available evidence concerning the nature, magnitude, causes and consequences of child poverty in New Zealand and considers why substantial rates of child poverty have been tolerated for an extended period. Drawing on the lessons of anti-poverty approaches in other OECD countries, it then outlines a strategy for securing substantial and durable reductions in child poverty rates in New Zealand. Finally, it considers the prospects of such a strategy being implemented and suggests ways of enhancing the focus of the political system on child-related social issues.     

新西兰成人教育的特点及其启示

作为太平洋上经济发达的移民岛国,新西兰政府为适应不同成人学习者的需求,在成人教育的政策制定、管理机构设置、教育资金投入、学习资源提供、少数民族及移民教育等方面都不断做出调整。探讨新西兰成人教育的特点,对我国成人教育的改革和发展具有重要的启示意义。     

Learning disabilities in New Zealand: where kiwis and kids with LD can't fly.

Learning disabilities (LD) has never been officially recognized as a category of special education in New Zealand. This article discusses the main reasons for the rejection of the LD category. The education system in New Zealand is described, and the nature of special education is outlined to provide a context for considering LD. Attempts by the parent group SPELD (New Zealand Federation of Specific Learning Disabilities Associations) to have "specific learning disabilities" (SLD) recognized in legislation are discussed, along with reasons for the rejection of these attempts by state education officials. It is concluded that LD/SLD will never be recognized as such in New Zealand. The needs of students with LD may potentially be met by new policies for "high incidence" special needs. But teachers' lack of skills and strategies for working with a range of learning difficulties is seen as an impediment to students with LD being adequately helped in the foreseeable future.     

Welfare Labourism versus the New Right: the struggle in New Zealand's education policy

ABSTRACT

New Zealand's radical education reforms (1987‐1990) provide a valuable case study for the examination of the politics, ideology and process of educational change. This paper examines the strategy of New Right agencies in attacking the established education settlement which embodies principles of Welfare Labourism. The crucial role of the New Zealand Treasury and of other agencies in bringing this settlement to crisis in the 1980s is analysed and discussed as is the response of the Labour Government. Many of the elements of struggle between Welfare Labourism and New Right market doctrines in education show similar features to struggles in other contexts such as the United Kingdom. However, the struggle in New Zealand makes visible and explicit the political and ideological features in a distinctive way. It also makes visible the significance of both race relations and of gender relations in the formation of education policy.     

Choosing a Model. Reflecting on the Development Process of Te Whariki: National Early Childhood Curriculum Guidelines in New Zealand∗

This paper reflects on the process of developing national curriculum guidelines for early childhood from the experience in New Zealand. Developing national curriculum guidelines in New Zealand during 1992 involved accessing current knowledge of child development, of learning, and of international early childhood practice. The development also involved complex interconnections between the nature of early childhood in New Zealand and its history (the setting), the opinions, ideas, and practice of current practitioners (the consultation), and decisions about which framework should be constructed (the model). The latter three aspects of the curriculum development process are the subject of this paper. Four possible models are briefly outlined, and then the New Zealand model is described.

     

Foreign Aid to Education: Recent U.S. Initiatives-Background,Risks, and Prospects

The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is a commitment of the United States to raise its grant aid by a factor of 50% over the next 3 years and will result in a $5 billion annual increase over current foreign aid levels. Many other countries and multinational development assistance agencies will be asked to help cofinance this new account, and their participation would augment this original proposal from the United States. The MCA offers the opportunity for a quantum change in the prospects for peace, stability, and the alleviation of poverty. However, will it work? This article suggests that the MCA will work only if it addresses several important dilemmas in the nature of foreign aid conditionality and the terms of reference of foreign aid organizations.     

数字经济的反垄断:近期美国反垄断领域争论的启示

近年来数字经济的发展给反垄断和竞争政策带来了巨大的挑战和争论,其中以发生在美国的围绕数字经济反垄断问题展开的"大争论"最引人注目。此次"大争论"以新布兰迪斯派对数字产业巨头和现行反垄断体系的批判为出发点,围绕着新经济的反垄断进行了全方位、系统性的再思考。本文从经济、法律、政治三个侧面梳理了此次美国反垄断"大争论",并对新布兰迪斯派的思想做了回溯和剖析。本文认为,新布兰迪斯派不具备成为数字经济反垄断主流学派的条件,争论背后的自由主义与干预主义之争仍将持续。但是此次"大争论"以及新布兰迪斯派背后的经济学思想,给我国反垄断事业的发展和整个反垄断事业的进步,都带来了宝贵的思考和启示。     

Some Old Wine and Some New Bottles: Religious and Moral Education in New Zealand

Abstract:

This article briefly describes and accounts for the present resurgence of interest in moral education in New Zealand. The tendency has been for moral education to be equated with sex education or religious instruction and the present debate stems in part from the former and spills over into the latter of these and is further complicated by a suggested merger between Church and State schools. The development of present legislation regarding religious instruction is traced and the current situation outlined. Religious and moral education in schools have, in the past, been matters of generally ineffective compromises which are likely to be perpetuated under a highly centralised situation with debate on a national, political level.     

School monitoring and quality assurance in the New Zealand school system

This article reports on the New Zealand education quality assurance and school monitoring system, including its framework, and responsibilities of agencies. It first gives an outline of the education system in New Zealand, and then introduces the role of school charters and levels of schooling. To ensure the quality of schools, the methods of school self-review and external reviews of schools are used by the New Zealand government. Schools are given a list of obligations that they have to follow. Assessment policies and the school curriculum are designed to support learning. Fubuki Sakura formerly called William Leung     

Skills development for poverty reduction (SDPR): The case of Tajikistan

Vocational education and training (VET) can contribute to the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. A key to economic and social progress is the training of better-qualified individuals and skilled enterprise staff who will be more productive, improving goods, increasing incomes and adapting to changing markets. Experts from international cooperation agencies see VET projects as suitable instruments for poverty alleviation in target groups working in the informal sector and rural economy. The recent shortages and high prices of rural products in many developing countries support this position. For the past two years a skills development for poverty reduction (SDPR) project has been running in rural areas of Central Asia to address rural poverty. The approach and findings of the project are discussed against the background of the international debate on VET in the context of poverty alleviation. It is hoped that the conclusions will contribute to optimising the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of similar VET projects.     

新西兰职业教育改革的内容、特点及启示

工业自动化时代的到来,使新西兰陷入了持续而广泛的技能短缺,并暴露出新西兰职业教育体系中技能“供应链”不完善的本质,这促使新西兰通过立法全面推进职业教育改革。在新的法案中,新西兰职业教育将建立统一的职业教育管理体系;组建网络技术与技能学院,并创建新型教育筹资制度。新西兰职业教育改革的内容和实践,以及改革中暴露的问题,对我国职业教育改革具有一定的启示意义。在我国职业教育改革实践过程中,应深入听取基层建议,注重企业、社区深度参与优化区域发展,加深信息技术与教育融合,重视对少数群体的职业教育,从而保障职业教育实施的公平性,促进职业教育改革的科学化,实现职业教育教学的现代化发展。     

新西兰资格框架（NZQF）及其启示

经过20多年的发展与完善,新西兰资格框架具有一定的公信力。这与其构成要素及结构的科学合理有一定的关系。同时,我们必须认识到,新西兰资格框架之所以有很强的生命力,还在于它有完善的质量保障体系,在新西兰教育法案基础上形成的可评估的质量保证框架是新西兰资格框架得以存在与发展的重要基础。它对于我国学分银行的建立和终身教育立交桥的塔建有着十分重要的启示。     

RE-ENGAGING STUDENTS IN SCIENCE: ISSUES OF ASSESSMENT, FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE AND SITES FOR LEARNING

International assessment data paints a complex picture of the engagement and achievement of New Zealand students in science. New Zealand was second only to Finland in the top achievers group in PISA 2006, but it also has one of the widest spreads in student achievement, particularly in relation to Mori and Pasifika students. Thus, the challenges faced by New Zealand students, teachers, schools and policy makers resonate with those from elsewhere. New Zealand has a strong research and development tradition around student ideas in science education, but recently, there has been increased recognition at the policy and practice level of the importance of both engagement and participation linked to student identity. A sociocultural orientation to identity has the potential to generate new ways of thinking about and responding to the challenge of engaging students in science. This orientation involves considering classrooms as sites for students working through the development and performance of science-related identities, or not. In this paper, three suggestions from long-term research studies are made for ways forward in addressing the challenge of increasing student engagement and participation through an expansion of the possibilities for students to express and develop science-related identities. These are reconceptualising assessment, the inclusion of student funds of knowledge and strategies for breaching the classroom walls.     

"海归派"与"本土派"的文化纷争

本文以跨文化价值观念的视角对所谓“海归派”和“本土派”的划分进行剖析。这种分歧其实就是“五四”以来中西文化争论的延续,其核心是讨论中国现代化过程中如何对待中国传统文化与西方文化的价值问题,但这种争论也有为私利所用的倾向。     

Retaining non‐traditional students: lessons learnt from Pasifika students in New Zealand

As New Zealand tertiary education has undergone extensive review processes, debate has centred not only on the need to extend the participation rates of groups previously under‐represented, but also how to retain these under‐represented groups once they are recruited into tertiary programmes. This paper draws on a large‐scale study of the factors that influence successful completion of tertiary qualifications for Pasifika students. Using a diverse range of data sources throughout New Zealand, the study identified a range of factors that impede retention, as well as positive factors that help increase retention. Its findings support the contention that the capacity of educational facilities to retain students is a function of the interface between student and institution, and the institution and the community.     

Counseling Children in Crisis Based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Basic Needs

This article addresses how Maslow's hierarchy of basic human needs can be used as a framework for cross-cultural counseling with children in crisis; that is, children of the world who are unable to fulfill adequately their basic human needs because of extreme circumstances such as natural disaster, violence, various forms of child abuse, extreme poverty, lack of school and community resources, and emotional abandonment. Assessment of child needs is discussed and counseling strategies are presented; strategies that include supportive counseling techniques, crisis intervention techniques, program development, delivery of social services and resources, referral to helping agencies, and counselor consultation with parents and other significant adults in the lives of children.     

新西兰中小学新教师“入职指导计划”述评

新西兰被认为是拥有世界上最好教育体制的国家之一,特别是在教师教育制度方面另有一套完全独立的教育体系。"入职指导计划"是新西兰教师委员会为新教师的专业学习提供实践支持的一项教育指导计划,旨在提高教师专业发展能力,促进新西兰教师教育职前培养、入职指导和在职专业发展的一体化进程,以推动教师终身教育体系的形成与完善。     

Third-Party Funding and Counselling in New Zealand: Implications for Counselling Services and Professional Autonomy

When, in New Zealand, a new third-party government funding arrangement was introduced for sexual abuse counselling, counsellors experienced challenges to their work practice and professional autonomy. There are some parallels between this experience and the influence of Managed Care on counselling in the United States. This article interprets the ways in which the development of counselling in New Zealand, and the New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC) interacted with the government agency, the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC). responsible for the funding. The resulting funding arrangements, while initially mutually beneficial to government and counsellors, are now being questioned by counsellors and the NZAC. Possible responses to this situation by New Zealand counsellors are explored and discussed in the context of wider international responses to third-party funding issues.